


Burning Embers

by jessicaannsavage



Category: Dragon Age, Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Determination, F/M, One Shot, Short One Shot, adoration
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-01
Updated: 2015-07-01
Packaged: 2018-04-07 01:50:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 484
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4244955
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jessicaannsavage/pseuds/jessicaannsavage
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cullen watches the Inquisitor walk through the Chantry doors, ready to die to save Haven. One Shot.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Burning Embers

"I would gladly give myself to save haven."

There's screaming in his veins like roaring fire.

_"No."_

So small, with limbs like branches, her nose comes to his chest, but so full of fire, blazing just beneath her skin, a devastating inferno. She's small, but there is no fear in her eyes. There is no worry in her entire being. Either she's confident she'll triumph, or she has accepted death, and Cullen is not sure which.

He's not paying attention.

"You don't like-- ugh. Herald." He begins, and her crystal eyes stop his beating heart, "There are no tactics to make this survivable."

She fights his suggestion, of course she does. He didn't honestly expect anything less. Rage in her blood, muscles taught and coiled. The tiniest little ember that refuses to be extinguished, hungry for kindling. She will fight. He expected this, too. She will fight, and she will tell him that she will prevail. And he will nod and pretend to believe, and he will carry his heavy heart through the passage and away from haven, knowing that he let her fall.

* * *

 

He searches the snow for her, beating away any suggestion to turn back. He can still see her, head held high, storming through the doors of the Chantry and out into the snow and ashes.

_Makers breath, let her live._

Feet aching and fingers numb he drags himself through the snow. He will continue this search until the cold takes him, but he will not relent of his own free will.

"There she is!"

He's never moved so fast, armor jingling as he leaps through the white. He squints, sees the tiny elf lying crumbled in the snow, and he stumbles in his haste.

Her hair is splayed across her face, her lips parted and blue, but when he lifts her head, when his hot breath tickles her cheek, her eyes flutter open and she smiles.

"Commander. Somehow I knew you'd find me."

He rips his mantle off with a fury and wraps her in it, desperately hoping it will be enough. He nearly crushes her with how quickly he pulls her into his arms and out of the snow, but he hears the faintest little laugh. Slender fingers cling to his hair with a shocking amount of strength.

"You're okay-" he whispers against the top of her head.

"I know." She replies, breath warm on his neck.

"You're safe-" he starts, pulling her closer.

"I know." She smiles

"You're alive." He breathes into her hair, more to himself than to her.

The healers almost pry her out of his arms, and he's left clutching his coat in his hands.

So tiny, and filled to burst with determination. He had doubted her. He should have never doubted her. If anyone would have survived that, he knew it was her. It had to be her. He will never doubt her again.

 

 


End file.
